1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an audio device that includes an illumination arrangement, and in particular to an audio device that includes at least one three-dimensional electro-luminescent lighting element.
2. Discussion of Related Art
It is known to decorate audio equipment with three-dimensional lighting elements such as neon tubes or fiber optics, but the disadvantages of such arrangements, including fragility, high cost, high power consumption, and difficulties in assembly, have to date limited their applicability.
One way to overcome the disadvantage of fragility, high cost, and high power consumption is to use electro-luminescent lighting elements, such as the ones described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos., 08,305,294 now U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,572,817; 08/343,404; 08,343,915; 08/383,404 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,394; 08/383,405; 08/409,925 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,621; 08/421,647 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,038; 08/432,707; 08/438,373 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,946; 08/444,064 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,651; 08/436,007 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,325; 08/444,064; 08/489,160; 08/498,258; 08/510,701 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,108; 08/552,940; 08/561,973 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,154; 08/611,049 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,069; 08/614,001 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,754; 08/712,484; 08/734,872, and issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,451,842; 5,469,342; 5,475,574; 5,479,325; 5,566,384, and 5,570,946. These lighting arrangements, which in general are in the form of panels or strips, offer flexibility, durability, and relatively low cost and power consumption with a relatively wide choice of colors and high visibility in comparison with most alternative lighting arrangements.
One commercially available electro-luminescent panel arrangement is manufactured by Durel Company USA, whose electro-luminescent panels are used in the Timex Indigloo wristwatch, and may also be used, for example, as backlighting for the scales on tuner displays in compact disc and laser disc players, amplifiers and receivers, synthesizers and keyboards, and other conventional audio equipment. The Durel Company electro-luminescent panel is a multi-layer panel made up of a conductive layer, a dielectric layer, a phosphor layer, and filter layers with micro-encapsulated particles to obtain a thickness of between 0.2 mm and 0.4 mm which offers large area illumination and low power consumption.
Despite the advantages of flat panel arrangements, however, they cannot completely replace neon lights or fiber optics since they can only emit light in limited directions. In addition, the conventional flat panel arrangements permit only a single color per phosphor coating, and require termination at predetermined points at the edge of the panels, severely restricting choice of panel placement application which can accommodate the necessary wiring. This is particularly inconvenient for custom designs or do-it-yourself applications, in which it would be advantageous for the consumer to make the terminals rather than having to work around fixed terminals.
Although flat panel arrangements can be bent into cylinders, the minimum bending radius for a typical flat panel having a thickness of 0.28 mm is approximately 8.0 mm, and thus to form a cylinder having a length of ymm and a diameter of 16 mm would require a panel of (16.pi..times.y)mm.sup.2. Such a cylinder would be both too large for use on most audio devices where miniaturization is a desirable quality, and yet would require an excessive size of flat panel for the coverage provided by the three-dimensional illumination. As a result, three-dimensional electro-luminescent arrangements made by simply bending a flat electro-luminescent panel are impractical.
To overcome the inherent limitations of conventional flat panel arrangements, a new electro-luminescent lighting technology has been proposed which offers the advantages of flat-panel arrangements without the disadvantages by utilizing a coaxial construction made up of a center conductor, surrounding dielectric and phosphor layers, and a coaxial outer conductor to obtain an electro-luminescent lighting element capable of emitting light over an angle of 10.degree. 360.degree., and yet which has a diameter equal to the diameter of the center conductor and twice the thickness of the surrounding layers, thus providing a three-dimensional electro-luminescent lighting element which is significantly thinner and uses less materials than could be obtained by simply bending a flat panel into a cylinder. This type of lighting element can provide a full neon light spectrum, and unlike other three-dimensional lighting systems such as incandescent lights, light emitting diodes, fluorescent tubes, and cold cathode tubes in combination with fiber optics or high light transmission devices, can provide uniform brightness over an extended length of up to 3000 meters, with multiple colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, and white, and so forth.
One problem with the proposed three-dimensional electro-luminescent lighting arrangement has been the difficulty in terminating the lighting elements. This problem was addressed by the Inventor in copending application 08/758,393, filed Nov. 29, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,867, by extending the center and outer conductors to provide terminals in the form of insulated wires which could be stripped to provide the necessary terminations, permitting utilization of the elements in a variety of new applications, including as decorative piping for footwear and other wearing apparel, in shoelaces, and in watches or clocks.
The present application describes various additional implementations made practical by the novel termination arrangement and method described in the copending application, extending the use of three-dimensional electro-luminescent lighting elements into the field of audio devices or equipment. The audio devices to which the present invention may be applied include compact disc players, laser disc or DSS players, amplifiers, headphones, alarms, conventional and portable stereo systems, synthesizers, keyboards, and so forth, thereby providing illuminated audio devices which are safer, lower in cost and power consumption, and more versatile than those employing neon or fiber optic lighting arrangements, while nevertheless exhibiting the brightness and attractive colors provided by neon or fiber optic arrangements. In addition, the present invention makes use of the additional advantages of three-dimensional lighting arrangements described in the copending application, including the ability to control colors more precisely, and to change colors and/or light intensity by changing the trigger frequencies and/or voltages of an element so as to provide dynamic changes in color and intensity responsive to sounds being generated or processed by the audio device for a unique light performance.